Tag: laughter

Today I am grateful for the taxi driver/师傅 who drove me home after my TCM massage therapy session. Our brief chat was deeply light-hearted and left me smiling. His ability to laugh a little at even the heavier topics, like politics and the state of migrant villages, was a refreshing reminder that we don’t have to take ourselves too seriously. He told me about his new taxi driving job, being a good driver, a funny incident with an elderly passenger… And as we navigated through the narrow backroads of a vanishing migrant village, I commented, “以前村子在的时候更乱。（This road was even more chaotic when the village was here) To which he wittily said, “那也没共产党乱！” (Still can’t be more chaotic than the party!) We shared a laugh.Several times, he dove into a serious tone and then resurfaced saying things like it’s not a matter of good or bad, releasing tension. Our interaction ended with him wishing me a happy life. 祝你生活愉快！ And I walked away smiling, replaying his parting wish over and over again. This guy isn’t some famed philosopher, he’s just another human being who’s lived life long enough to hold wisdom. With his peasantry background and my international school upbringing, our worlds could not be more different. Yet, at the same time, if we choose to look deeper, we are still just two human beings living life to the best of our abilities.